E3 2005: Viewtiful Joe DS Impressions

Share.

Wow. What a weird and wonderful concept.

By Craig Harris

I'm honestly at a loss for words. Viewtiful Joe DS was fully playable at the Electronic Entertainment Expo today, and here I am unable to come up with a clear and concise way of explaining the extremely original use of the Nintendo DS for the handheld rendition of Capcom's action game.

Let's at least get the visuals out of the way. Visually, Viewtiful Joe looks fantastic. It's not the super fast and smooth, blazing 60 frames per second game engine of the GameCube original and sequel, but the Nintendo DS version offers up a 3D engine that spans both screens in many instances. The texture work is extremely similar to what's being done on the console, keeping in line with the "toon shading" style of the original game and its sequel.

Gameplay, here's where it gets difficult to explain. At the very least, Viewtiful Joe still has his standard attacks and dodges for the dual screen version. So, when you have to do a little street cleaning with enemies, it's a simple matter of kick, punch, and jump. Players still have the ability to dodge enemy attacks by ducking or jumping when you see the high or low attacks approaching. The game also still has a lot of V-coin collecting and platform hopping across the 2D environments, so if you're a Viewtiful Joe fan you'll really like what you see in the DS version's basic offering.

But the character's VFX special abilities are unlike anything you've ever experienced before. At least in the demo, Joe cannot slow down time like he could in the GameCube design. Instead, he gets a new assortment of special VFX abilities. Players, for example, can literally split the scene on the lower screen, dividing the environment in half horizontally to do specific tasks. So, for example, say there's a fire blocking your way. By splitting the scene and sliding the upper half over, you might be able to break a waterpipe and spray water down onto the fire below. Or, you might need to kick a huge bomb straight up in the air, but an object prevents it from getting as high as it can. Split the scene and move it out of the way.

You can also switch the frame from the top screen to the bottom. Since one screen shows a closer view of the action on the other, by switching the scene to the bottom touch screen, you'll be able to interact with specific elements. In one instance, to activate a coin operated machine you'll need to switch the scene in order to turn the crank with the touch screen. Some enemies have to be eliminated by tapping on them in the up-close view, so you'll have to switch the scene to bring them down for a little touch-screen removal.

All of the VFX abilities can, and should, be activated with a drag of the finger since the action requires a lot of button and D-pad action, too...it would get a little clunky to have a stylus always in-hand to pull off the moves. The scene split's a simple matter of dragging your finger across the screen from left to right or right to left. Switching the scene from top to bottom is a full finger stroke from top to bottom.

It was a crazy demo but it was a lot of fun to play and experience. Hopefully the explanations of the VFX abilities came through in the text...it's really something tough to explain, and it's even more confusing when you see it in video form without understanding the unique play mechanic.

Viewtiful Joe DS hits the Nintendo DS this fall. If the E3 version's any indication, this one's a winner.